Talking Pictures TV TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Talking Pictures TV Tonight

Published: 22 September 2026

Talking Pictures TV is the independent, family-run channel built almost entirely on one man’s private film collection. Noel Cronin spent decades buying up the rights to older British and Hollywood titles through his company Renown Pictures, and in May 2015 he and his daughter, Sarah Cronin-Stanley, turned that archive into a television channel. Eleven years on, nobody else on British free-to-air is attempting anything like it. Wednesday 23 September 2026 opens in the small hours with the Western Captain Apache, then a short Cinebox Memories clip leads into The Directors and an early rerun of The Man from U.N.C.L.E ahead of daybreak. Sherlock Holmes opens the day proper at 6am, Pearl of the South Pacific fills the rest of breakfast, and Don’t Say Die and Hour of Decision carry the late morning towards The Gentleman Bandit at 11am. The Buccaneers and SOS Pacific bridge lunchtime, before an archive newsreel, Dial 999, That’s My Boy and Three Crooked Men close out the afternoon, ahead of the evening line-up below. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Wednesday 23 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Wednesday 23 September 2026, on Freeview 82.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

Today’s overnight run opens with the Western Captain Apache just after 2am, then a short Cinebox Memories clip leads into The Directors at 4am and an early rerun of The Man from U.N.C.L.E at 5am.

The day proper opens with Sherlock Holmes at 6am, then the adventure film Pearl of the South Pacific fills the rest of breakfast. Don’t Say Die and Hour of Decision carry the late morning towards The Gentleman Bandit at 11am. The Buccaneers and SOS Pacific bridge lunchtime, then an archive newsreel and Dial 999 lead into That’s My Boy and Three Crooked Men, which close out the afternoon ahead of the evening line-up below.

Talking Pictures TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Talking Pictures TV primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 23 September 2026.

Rooms — Talking Pictures TV, 6pm

Rooms opens the evening at 6pm: two old romantics trade memories of years gone by, until a visit from the police unsettles the friendship.

Rooms — Talking Pictures TV, 6:30pm

The second half of the story continues at 6:30pm, with Russell Hunter and Maureen Pryor carrying the episode.

Out of Town — Talking Pictures TV, 7pm

At 7pm, Out of Town finds Jack Hargreaves calling on kingfisher rescuers and a model-maker.

Dick Turpin — Talking Pictures TV, 7:30pm

Dick Turpin follows at 7:30pm, with an actress drawn in to lure the highwayman into a trap.

Van der Valk — Talking Pictures TV, 8:05pm

Van der Valk airs at 8:05pm: an English aristocrat is found dead in an Amsterdam canal.

Scandal — Talking Pictures TV, 9:05pm

The evening’s main feature, Scandal, holds the 9:05pm slot for well over two hours. It’s a fact-based drama starring Joanne Whalley.

Nor the Moon By Night — Talking Pictures TV, 11:25pm

Nor the Moon By Night closes the night at 11:25pm, a romance starring Belinda Lee and Patrick McGoohan.

What kind of films and shows are on Talking Pictures TV

Vintage British and Hollywood films

The backbone of the schedule is the Renown Pictures library: British films from the 1930s to the 1970s, plus war pictures, adventure films and the odd Hollywood title bought in to fill a gap. Quality swings wildly from one afternoon to the next, which is part of the deal.

Archive TV drama and detective series

Early evenings lean on serialised drama from the 1950s through the 1980s: Z Cars, Public Eye, Hannay and others of that stripe. Much of it isn’t shown anywhere else on British television, and some of it hadn’t been shown anywhere at all for thirty-odd years before this channel dug it out. If you want to know why people are fond of Talking Pictures TV rather than merely tolerant of it, this is the part of the schedule to point at.

Cult strands, B-movies and magazine shows

Late nights get stranger: horror and cult titles through Caroline Munro’s Cellar Club, oddities like Supernatural, imported curios.

For an archive channel, the range is remarkable: across 48 days Talking Pictures TV drew 1,088 slots from 577 different titles, making it the second least repetitive channel on Freeview after Film4. our study of repeats on UK television has the full table.

How to watch Talking Pictures TV

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Talking Pictures TV across the main UK television platforms:

Talking Pictures TV is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. It doesn’t run a +1 timeshift channel, so these are the only live feeds available.

TPTV Encore catch-up

TPTV Encore is the channel’s own free streaming service, launched in December 2021 and run through a browser at tptvencore.co.uk, with an app on Android. Register an email address and recent broadcasts are usually there for about a week.

The better reason to bother with it is what sits behind the catch-up: a deep archive that includes Southern Television material never given a regular slot on the main channel. Those older titles stay free after the catch-up window shuts, but they carry adverts.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on Talking Pictures TV tonight?

A Rooms double opens the evening from 6pm, then Out of Town and Dick Turpin carry early evening, and Van der Valk follows at 8:05pm. The main feature, the fact-based drama Scandal, airs at 9:05pm and runs past eleven. Nor the Moon By Night closes out the night at 11:25pm. Check the schedule table above for the full day’s listings.

What channel is Talking Pictures TV on?

Freeview 82, Sky 324, Virgin Media 445 and Freesat 306. It’s also on Freely at channel 36. All are free to watch.

Does Talking Pictures TV have a +1 channel?

No. TPTV Encore stands in for a +1 service, with recent broadcasts available to catch up on demand instead.

Is Talking Pictures TV free to watch?

Yes, entirely. It’s advertising-funded rather than subscription-funded, on the live channel and on TPTV Encore alike.

Verdict

I rate Talking Pictures TV highly for exactly what it is: a small independent operation that still does something none of the bigger channels bother with. Old films and archive television get a proper home here instead of the odd graveyard slot. It won’t be for everyone, and some evenings the schedule reads like a lucky dip. That’s also the appeal.

Tonight’s evening runs the channel’s familiar shape: a Rooms double opens at 6pm, then a run of archive drama and adventure carries the pre-9pm hours, before Scandal, the starriest title in tonight’s line-up, holds the main evening slot for over two hours and a wartime-era romance closes out the night.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Freeview Films Tonight